Ben & Franci and co (sort of) in New York City

Yosemite!

Yo’s Mite. That’s how I always thought you pronounced Yosemite (having only ever seen it written). Now I know better. Just think Yo’s Cemetery without the ‘r’ and you’re set. :-)

One of the many things I love about the States is how varied the scenery is. Yosemite is beautiful. But so is Arches. And the Smoky Mountains. And the Adirondacks. And… I could go on. :-)

One morning we went for a short hike to Mirror Lake. One of the first things we saw on the hike was this bear trap. We’re not used to seeing things like that!

The hike was a bit of a wild goose chase, because we somehow went way too far. It turned out that the little pond we passed at one point was actually the lake, so we backtracked, walked through a beautiful meadow,

And beheld the pond. I mean, lake.

The girls enjoyed the water (it was a hot day), nevertheless, and it was actually quite nice for them that it was so shallow!

There was another part to the lake — apparently it was a very dry year, hence the low water levels — where there were quite a few more people.

A little bit off topic, but I saw this car in the park and couldn’t help thinking, “What a long way to drive!” About 3120 miles, if they’re from Anchorage.

There were so many very tall trees. We didn’t make it down to the giant sequoia forest (hey cool, the word ‘sequoia’ has all 5 vowels in it!), but still saw some big ones.

Did I mention that we were glamping? When I was booking our accommodation in advance for our roadtrip, the dates that we wanted to be in Yosemite were all booked out (except for the really expensive hotels) inside the park, so I found a campsite just outside the park where you could camp using all their gear and facilities. It was great! Tent already set up, beds made with nice warm sleeping bags and comfortable mattresses, hot showers, hammocks, a big fire pit, a pool, a playground, a little shop and restaurant, even little trollies for your luggage! All for the price of a nice hotel anywhere else in the country.

We had our own food, but couldn’t cook there because it attracts bears. We were warned not to leave any of our food in our tents because bears come after it, and the campsite provided bear-proof boxes for food that were away from the tents a bit. Well, the first night we slept without any problems, but on the second night we woke up to the sounds of a bear banging on the nearby food boxes and rubbish bin. It turns out some clever person left some food out on top of the bins and that attracted the bear. We then lay there in the tent petrified, hearing the bear move around the campsite. The scary thing was that not so long before I had gone out to the car to get some medicine for Esther who was getting sick — sticky, sweet tylenol syrup. All Ben could think was that the bear would smell that and try to get into our tent! All I could think about was had I gone out a bit later I would have met the creature out there in the dark! In the end the bear moved off and we went back to sleep — a very light kind of sleep.

At our campsite, there were big tall trees with lots of cool-looking moss or lichen growing on them. This next photo makes me feel dizzy.

Between a couple of these mossy trees there was this cool swing, which we all enjoyed.

On our last morning, the morning after the Night Of The Bear, we went on a little walk (“We’re going on a Bear Hunt“) before our drive to San Francisco. There was a brave “we’re not scared” veneer over some distinct nervousness over meeting a bear! And no, the bear of the previous night was nowhere to be seen. Thankfully.